TOPtoTOP expedition reports

We made it to the World Expo Shanghai!

Latest press release, click here!

Media articles in China:
1: Jiefang Daily; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6

Media in Japan: Tokyo Rdaio Station

Picture download for media purposes (user name: media@swisspavilion, password: swisspavilion, > Folder 06 Pictures and Architecture Plans > Top To Top)

Chinese Pavilion with our translator Jessie

Thanks to the Swiss Consul René Seiler we were able to visit the "German School Shanghai" just in time before the holidays started.

In Lhasa Salina, Andri and Noé enjoyed the first bath after Kathmandu and eating fruits.

After Shanghai we needed to take the train to Chengdu because of a restricted area for tourists, where we met our friend and TOPtoTOP member Ric van Wachem from Sidney and where we saw the first Pandas. In Chengdu there was a big interest in our story and we had several media interviews.

Thanks to great effort of the Swiss Consular René Seiler, we were finally able to extend our visa. In the Youth Hostel "Lacy bones" we made friend with Ray, who become a TOPtoTOP member and joined us with his bike.
Thanks to Bike China a great company managed by Peter Snow Cao, we got some advises where to go and off we went....


Navigation in China is a challenge, even with good maps and GPS. Ray was a must because whole China is a big construction site. So even if the map is new, it will be out of date in no time, because new roads and cities come up like mushrooms after a rainfall.

So we were really happy that Ray was joining us as a translator and finding the best road and to have our friend Ric with us who carry one of our children and is able to fix bikes in no time.

Andri is handy too....

On the trip to Shanghai we had the best roads but also the worst roads we ever have experienced, because of the heavy rain. More South of us people were killed and they reported that it was the biggest rainfall since a century. We spent 3 days cycling trough the mud. The mud was so consistent and deep that the wheels didn't turn anymore and we had to push.



Perfect roads

And soon after we were lucky to have our CANYON bikes...
A local market


Lunch break

Everywhere the people were friendly and hospital. As soon as we stopped there where crowds around us taking pictures, asking questions and always liked to touch our children.

To make it in time to the World Expo we took a boat on the Yangtze River, we shared with many Chinese.
Making friends

Now at the World Expo in Shanghai we had the best media conference ever in the Swiss Pavilion thanks to the great organization skills of Kieu from Presence Switzerland and Karen from swissnex China. We never have seen so many people like here. More soon ...

Media storm in Shanghai!

Looks like the expedition family conquered not only 7 Seas and the 7 Summits but also the Chinese media!

New clipping report: File: Clipping Report for Swiss Pavilion Media Swiss Family_0708.doc, 43,766.50 KB
All this thanks to our sponsors and supporters; mainly SGS, Victorinox and the Swiss Government (PRS)!

Dear all,

As of July 9, 135 clippings have been monitored for Top to Top project with 18 new clippings which were highlighted in red in the clipping index. Among all of the media coverage, 17 are original reports while 118 are pick-ups.

What is worth highlighting here is not only the quantity of the articles but also the quality of the original reports. Jiefang Daily, Labor Daily, Daily News and Oriental Morning Post, these four mainstream general newspapers in Shanghai all generated very impressive big reports with the eye-catching picture of the family in it. Besides, as you can see from today's news alert, China Daily has published a full-page story of this project.

Also, CCTV has given the story a 3-min-length feature report, which is an amazingly long report for an event. Looks like the expedition family conquered not only 7 Seas and the 7 Summits but also the Chinese media!

To see more details, please kindly download the updated version of the clipping reports via the link below.

File(s) will be available for download until 23 July 2010:

File: Clipping Report for Swiss Pavilion Media Swiss Family_0708.doc, 43,766.50 KB

World Expo Shanghai

TOPtoTOP on the offical Expo Website!

The TOPtoTOP family was THE attraction for 2 weeks at the Swiss Pavilion. They taught the Chinese audience how to dance and sing in Swiss while spreading their message to protect our climate with a lot of fun and adventure:

Our translator Jessie was just great and became our kids best friend

Even Noé was integrated in the show

Andri and Salina taught the Chinese how to dance

We also met invited professors and students from Fudan, Tongji and Jiaotong University to talk about our inspirational experience at the Swiss Pavilion:

During our stay in Shanghai we were surrounded by the media and invited to several life shows.Check the media coverage at the end of the report!

The Chinese Pavilion shows many good solutions to protect our climate, too.

We also had the opportunity to meet some of the SGS staff in Shanghai and visit their great testing laboratories. Here they are testing bicycles. Our CANYON bike was for sure also tested by SGS, because we never had any problems.

Thanks a lot again to the whole PRS team in the Swiss Pavilion, specially Anne-Sophie Cosanday, Kieu Tran and Peter Tscherter. Many thanks also to swissnex China, specially Flavia Schlegel and Karen Undritz and the Swiss General Conulate in Shanghai, specially Consul René Seiler, deputy Consul Thomas Schneider and Heidi Zhang. Thanks a lot to our two main sponsors Victorinox and SGS, and specially to Richard Shentu and Angela Chang from the SGS office in Shanghai.

The World Expo Shanghai was a great success. I think it was because we are family trying to live in harmony with our climate... We all played our part: Sabine, Salina and Andri did the "environmental games", the dancing and singing; Dario did the more scientific presentations....but the star of the show was little Noé.

GOOD NEWS:
We just got an email from our TOPtoTOP member and Rotarian Hanna. Check out her flyer and get in contact with her so that we get even more pencils for poor school children in Nepal:

"Just a quick update on Operation Colour Pencils: Alex, our benefactor, phoned me on Tuesday to tell me that the pencils have arrived. His words to me were: 'I only managed to get 440 sets of coloured pencils out of them [the wholesaler], but they did throw in 400 pencil sharpeners.' ! Isn't that fantastic? He is going to bring them down to Yankalilla this week. I picked up 15 sets from Yankalilla Area School on Monday, one of our Rotarians (Ann Sinclair) dropped off 2 gross (2 boxes of 144) of pencil sharpeners, and people have been dropping off pencils into the collection box at our back door. A lady from Goolwa also phoned me last week and she has now dropped off 10 sets of pencils at my mother's house (in Goolwa). All up we now have about 500 sets of pencils and nearly 700 sharpeners. I will follow up the two other primary schools in the are to ask if they have received any donations. I'm now working on getting the pencils to Nepal. Our District Governor suggested that we contact Rotary Donations In Kind, who work from South Australia. They send container loads of goods (hospital beds, walking frames, wheelchairs, computers, typewriters, etc etc) to countries throughout the world. All containers are dispatched to the care of a Rotary Club in the country of destination, so that DIK knows the equipment will not be misappropriated. There is a chance that they might have a container going to Nepal and our pencils could go into the container. I am also in the process of contacting QANTAS to see if they might consider taking them for us. I'll let you know when I have sorted it out."

CONGRATULATION HANNA, PEOPLE LIKE YOU CHANGE THE WORLD!
===
LATEST MEDIA COVERAGE:

To share with you another great coverage about TOPtoTOP event that was generated on Yangcheng Evening News,one of the largest circulated newspapers in China.

The half-page report published today not only talks about the family's eco-adventure, but also links the family with the Swiss Pavilion and then switches to showcase the colorful events held in the pavilion in these two months. Besides, the journalist also selected a few eye-catching photos in the report.

As of July 9, 135 clippings have been monitored for Top to Top project with 18 new clippings which were highlighted in red in the clipping index. Among all of the media coverage, 17 are original reports while 118 are pick-ups.

What is worth highlighting here is not only the quantity of the articles but also the quality of the original reports. Jiefang Daily, Labor Daily, Daily News and Oriental Morning Post, these four mainstream general newspapers in Shanghai all generated very impressive big reports with the eye-catching picture of the family in it. Besides, as you can see from today's news alert, China Daily has published a full-page story of this project.

Also, CCTV has given the story a 3-min-length feature report, which is an amazingly long report for an event. Looks like the expedition family conquered not only 7 Seas and the 7 Summits but also the Chinese media!

To see more details, please kindly contact Kieu Tran to download the updated version of the clipping reports (tran@swisspavilion.ch).

To share with you a TV clip about TOPtoTOP event that was generated on CCTV-News yesterday. The news report is basically followed the key message that Dario shared on the media briefing, focusing the family's eco-adventure around the world and the significance behind it. The coverage is widely picked up by major online portals such as:

People TV;
20101 Expo TV; JXCN TV; Tudou TV...and more print: Jiefang Daily; Xinhuanet; 2010.qq.com and 1 and 2 and China News

Start of TOPtoTOP Award Expedition

On the 29th of August, the Schwoerer family, headed to meet the rest of the TOPtoTOP family at a camping spot in Maloja - in the state of Graubúnden; Switzerland!!!

It was the beginning of a 10 day camping trip to celebrate the anniversary of the TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition! Where else should they celebrate but in the homeland of the family, and the starting point of their very first TOPtoTOP tour!

Families from around the country gathered to share some time camping, hiking and celebrating with the Schwoerers! Everyone has been involved, (at some point or another) to help TOPtoTOP develop into what it is today: an ongoing and successful non-profit organisation helping raise awareness of the effects of climate change, spread the message of a healthy lifestyle, and share positive example for the future!

A special aspect of this celebration, is the participation from students from around the world!!!

On the 10th of August - the Winners of the 2010 TOPtoTOP Global Climate Solution Contest would begin their journey around Switzerland; to learn about the good solutions Switzerland has to offer our environment!!

They are:

Christopher Ngoi - Singapore

Chris wrote a report on wide spread adoption of the current technologies regarding climate change, such as encouraging people to adopt a more vegetarian diet. He aims to look at all the technologies that exist, and reshape them to be more adaptable and accommodating in modern society.
Chris wants to experience first hand the effects of Global Warming in the Swiss Glaciers and explore the different green technologies Switzerland implements. Using this knowledge, he hopes to bring the technology back to Singapore and adapt it to his environment.

Wang Nuan (Debbie) - China

Debbie is studying Environmental Science at Shanghai Jiaotong University. She is working in China to implement a more effective and environmentally friendly waste management system. She is interested in learning more about the implementation of water treatment centres and waste management in Switzerland.
She dreams that one day China will also have an effective recycling program and waste management system. Her aim is to come up with new ideas, and explore the innovation of technology in Europe to implement in her homeland of China, and particularly the city of Shanghai.

Mohit Agarwal - India

Mohit is an Electrical engineer at IIT Delhi, and enjoys trekking through the Himalayas. He won the competition by writing report on the widespread application of "Organoponic Farming" in cities based on the Cuban Model.
Havana produces 90% of its vegetables within the city using this method of farming. It does not use fertilisers or pesticides, nor does it need any mechanised farming implements like tractors or machinery.
On the trip, he hopes to learn more about the different methods Switzerland uses for farming and agriculture; to bring back the knowledge of the Swiss way of life, and to help find a solution for his homeland of India.

Tiffany Kaesermann - Japan / Australia

Tiffany is studying environmental management, majoring in natural systems and wildlife. She won the TOPtoTOP Global Climate Competition through her amazing report on the Great Barrier Reef. This detailed thesis went into the issues of the effects of climate change on the great barrier reef, the importance of healthy ecosystems, and management strategies to reduce the impact of Global Warming.
In switzerland, she hopes to learn more about the issues regarding melting permafrost, and the glacial melting which will evidently cause global sea levels to rise. In 2008 Tiffany attended an international sustainability conference in Canada as a representative for her school, to bring back more ideas for a sustainable future.

Macarena Sandrock - Chile

Macarena is studying "Conservation of Natural Resources" at University, and won the TOPtoTOP competition by writing a report on Geo-thermal Energy - focusing on Clean solutions for obtaining natural energy.
She hopes to learn about all the different ways that the Swiss government obtains energy, and hopes to come up with some innovative ideas of her own to bring home to South America.

Jacqui Hocking - Australia

Living in one of the countries that may be one of the worst effected by climate change, Jacqui has been an environmental activist for many years. Using documentary as a medium to spread global awareness, she aims to develop initiatives like Plugin TV - a platform for social and environmental documentaries to be broadcast throughout Australia and online. Since meeting the TOPtoTOP expedition in 2008, she has volunteered onboard to film in various countries around to world; to spread the TOPtoTOP message and share all the environmental stories that would otherwise go unheard.
The most harrowing story of this journey so far has been witnessing the environmental devastation affecting Borneo; the habitat for the endangered species of orang-utan.
In switzerland, she hopes to film the TOPtoTOP Solution Contest, and collaborate with each of the winners to compile footage about each of the good solutions they discover; so that they can share the knowledge with their communities back home.

Also attending the competition is Gao Pan from China who met the TOPtoTOP Expediton during the World Expo in Shanghai. Gao is a Civil Engineer, who met Dario at the Swiss Pavillion. After watching the presentation, he was inspired to attend and volunteer during the Competition, and hopes to volunteer again in the future onboard the TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition.
He is very interested by the Solar Power solutions in Switzerland, and the way water is used to generate electricity.

Also joining will be Zofie Feytons from China, a media representative following the story of the competition, and specifically of the Chinese participant; Debbie.

We wish everyone the best of luck for the following weeks! Each day, one of the winning students will help to put together the expedition report, keeping a diary of their adventures and the solutions they discover along the way!

So keep in touch!!!!!